Apple Crackle

“Gourmet” Apple Chips

Typically, bagged “healthy snacks” that please a gourmet palate are few and far between. When a healthy, low-fat snack is also free of wheat, gluten and dairy, we might get suspicious.

Apple Acres Farm’s Apple Crackle made us reconsider healthy snacks. When we first sent for them, we expected health food store-style apple chips, which have traditionally not met our expectations. The category consists of natural apple chips that are pale in color and lack crunch, or not-so-healthy apple chips laced with chemicals, added sugars and preservatives and taste more like a generic starchy chip than a piece of apple. Apple Crackle bears no resemblance to either style of apple chips. It is a singular snack, nothing like others you may be familiar with in either taste or in appearance. It’s an apple chip that we can truly recommend.

It took a few bites before our taste buds registered all of the subtle characteristics of Apple Crackle, but by then we were hooked. Sure, it’s a bit “country,” and it tastes healthy—that’s why you want it, instead of other options.

Although Apple Crackle is highly crispy, it is not fried. It gets added crunch from raw sunflower seeds. There’s a delicate sweetness both from the natural sugar in the apples, Maine maple syrup, and an apple syrup made from nothing but apples. The taste and texture are rounded out with a little unsweetened coconut and a bit of cinnamon. It’s an all-natural product: no artificial flavors, sugars or colors. The satisfying crunch is highly addictive, like all crunchy snacks.

Like many specialty foods, Apple Crackle can be used to enhance other foods. We really enjoyed it sprinkled over yogurt, mixed into apple quick breads and on top of our morning bowl of oatmeal. The chips are small—the size of bran flakes—so you can sprinkle them as a tasty garnish on a variety of plates, from eggs and pancakes to tuna sandwiches to pork chops.

Most people will enjoy it most often as an alternative snack that can be enjoyed on the go or in in front of the T.V. A three-quarter cup serving has 120 calories and 3.5 grams of fat.

Apple Crackle is produced and packaged on the same Maine farm on which the apples are grown. In fact, all of the products from Apple Acres Farm are made from their very own apples by members of the farmers’s family. After you’ve tried their Apple Crackle, you’ll want to check out the other excellent products made from their sweet apples.